Watch Your Tone(r)
by inkheart9459
Summary: Beca's almost done with her shift when the family from hell shows up ten minutes to closing and gets sat in her section. Everything is going ok, until the dude's steak comes out too done and then everything goes to hell and the yelling starts. Fortunately a hot German lady comes to her rescue.


I also co-wrote this with the lovely Valnixyrie. We hope y'all enjoy.

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Beca hurried, hefting the tray on her shoulder. Her back hurt like a mother fucker, her feet were numb, and fucking thankfully all she had to do was get two more tables out the door and they would finally be closed for the night and she could go home and pass the fuck out. Except that the two tables she still had to go were the rudest, white middle class people she'd ever fucking encountered in her year of waitressing, so this was going to try her patience even more than normal. Who even came into a restaurant at 9:48PM when they closed at 10? It was so fucking rude.

She took a deep breath and pulled a smile out of her ass. At least she wasn't the waitress stuck with like a party of fifteen. It was some sort of team or something, all dressed in black and bouncing between speaking English and what sounded like full-on German. They'd been there for about an hour and half before they got their food, but they hadn't made a fuss and were almost done now. But still. Fifteen fucking people. Beca was glad she wasn't Stacie. Or Amy for that matter since she had to cook all that food. Geesh.

Beca stepped up to her table and put the tray on its stand. She handed out the food with a smile even though on the inside she was killing each and every one of the family of four in various, slow and painful ways. She still wanted at least a decent fucking tip for this bullshit. With one last smile she was off again towards the back with a sigh. The dad was going to need a refill before everything was over. She might as well just get it now and save herself the trouble and while she was at it get the bill ready for the other table that was basically done. Anything to hurry them the fuck out of her hair.

She grabbed everything she needed and headed out again. This time the smile she put on felt ten times as fake, but maybe twenty more minutes and she would be free as a bird. Well, free-ish. There was still cleanup work to do, ugh. She dropped off the bill and walked up to her other table, icy Dr. Pepper in hand.

Oh no. She could see the glares as she walked up. This wasn't going to go well. Something had gone wrong. Which, surprise, happened when no one fucking cared about your order because you were a dick bag and came in like two minutes to closing. Except now she was going to have to deal with it. Great. Just what she always wanted. Like those stupid Sockem Boppers that her parents never got her for Christmas when she was little even though she'd asked for them for like five Christmases in a row. She was clearly still bitter about that. Chances were she was totally going to be bitter about what was about to happen too.

"Anything I can do for you guys?" She asked, setting down the Dr. Pepper by the dad who looked the angriest of them all. Even fucking better.

He pushed his plate forward. "Excuse me, Miss, but this is well done, not the medium well that I asked for. And these potatoes are not mashed enough. They're still crunchy."

Great. His overcooked steak was too cooked and he was a little man baby who couldn't take a little texture in his potatoes. Fucking A, Amy was not going to like this. He was totally going to have something done to his food. And she was going to have to stay here longer. Ugh, fuck her life.

"Well, sir, I can have another one made for you right away." She tried to smile, but it wasn't happening.

"No, I wanted it done right the first time!" he snarled.

Oh even better, an unreasonable one. "Sir, I'm sorry that isn't the case here. But getting you a new dish is the best I can do. I can't time travel." She laughed awkwardly at her own joke, trying to diffuse the situation. Which of course only made it worse.

"You won't think this is so funny when I get in touch with your manager."

Ugh, always with the managers, these people. They didn't fucking know that the managers gave even less shits than the servers. They at least got paid an hourly wage and didn't rely on tips.

"I can also take the dish off of your bill and give you a half price coupon for dessert." Please shut up. Please shut up. Please shut up. She chanted inside her head. Literally she had offered to do everything she could for a kitchen fuck up. If he didn't shut the fuck up there was going to be a problem.

The rest of the family settled down a bit, but the dad just turned progressively more red. Oh god, here it goes.

"No. I do not want any of that, I want to talk to your manager. It's all your fault that we got lousy service and food. Someone needs to report you and your obvious bad attitude."

Oh this guy didn't even know bad attitude. She fucking wished she could show him bad attitude. But for the sake of her job she was muzzled like a little bitch. Jesus, public service jobs were shit.

"I'm sorry, sir, that you feel I've done a bad job. I don't control the kitchen, however. I just bring the food to you. But if you really want to see a manager I can see if one is still here. After all, we did close officially twenty minutes ago and they might have gone home to spend time with their families." Well, if she was going to go down for this, she might as well get in some subtle punches. Ones that would only get her scolded instead of fired. She was well aware of where the line was.

"Are you stupid? Did you not hear me? I want to talk to a manager." He looked like he was about to come over the table at her. Jesus, what people did in the name of food was ridiculous.

"Okay, sir, I'll be right back then." She turned away and immediately pulled a face as she walked away. Stacie shot her a sympathetic glance. Beca just rolled her eyes back with an expression that said 'what can you do?'

She went into the back and walked to the manager's little cubby/office whatever and looked around. No coats, no jackets, nothing. Yup, they'd all checked the fuck out and left it to the closing staff. Must be good to be a manager. Ugh. She didn't know what was about to happen when she walked back out there, but it wasn't going to be pretty. At all. She should probably check with Stacie to make sure that everyone was gone just in case. And also so she could delay the inevitable a little bit. And actually looked like she had put any sort of effort into looking. Which she hadn't really.

She walked back out to the floor and grabbed Stacie as she was printing out bills for everyone at her huge table. "Hey, all the managers gone?"

"Um, only Bumper was left when I last saw, but he's probably checked out by now to go do whatever it is he does with his free time. Probably look at himself in the mirror, don't ask me." She shrugged.

"Okay, I'll go ask Amy then. She's probably the only one that'll know if he's really here or not or just hiding. They are...well, whatever they are to each other." They both looked at each other and shivered.

"Right, good luck with that. And with him." Stacie looked over at the family who was now staring at Beca like she should drop dead on the spot.

"Thanks." She walked into the kitchen. "Amy!"

Amy popped out of literally nowhere and Beca wondered how she always managed to do that.

"Is Bumper still here, or any other manager for that matter?" She leaned against the door frame.

"No, Bumper was the last one, and he had a hair gel anonymous meeting to go to tonight."

Beca blinked once. Hair gel anonymous. She didn't even want to know. "Oh, great. Okay, I'm about to go tell Mount Vesuvius that there's no manager to talk to. He said your steak was too overdone and that his potatoes weren't mashed enough and apparently that's enough to declare war or some shit."

"What! My food is always perfectly cooked!" Amy looked affronted. She pushed up her sleeves. "I'll fucking show him what good food looks like when I shove it in his mouth." She started to walk for the door, but Beca blocked her.

"No, dude, I got this. Just finish cleaning up and maybe some of us will get to go home at a decent hour."

"Fine, fine, short stuff, if you say so. But I got your back if you need."

"Yeah, well, keep an ear out. I just might." Beca shook her head before she pushed out the door again.

If the man had been red faced before, she was pretty sure he was somewhere in the purple area of the color spectrum now. She approached the table slowly, dreading the confrontation that was no doubt about to occur.

"I'm sorry, sir, but it seems all our managers have left for the night. I could check and see if you can switch servers if you'd like or I can get you your bill. What would you like me to do?"

"What I want you to do, is get a fucking manager here, you stupid bitch? How the hell is that so god damn hard."

Beca's eye twitched as she physically held herself back. "Sir, I don't control when people leave. I'm just a server. I've already offered to do anything for you that's in my power, I'm not sure what else you expect me to do. If you want me to do any of the things I've suggested, I would be happy to, but that's all that I can do right now at ten thirty on a Thursday."

"I think you're lying. You haven't done a damn thing. You just walked around and talked to your friends and made it look like you were looking when you really were just dicking around."

"No, sir, I was asking them if they had seen the manager, but they both told me the same thing, that he had left to go to an important meeting." Important. Hair gel anonymous. Whatever.

The man stood up and banged his hands on the table, causing the plates and glasses to shake and tingle. "That's a fucking lie! Who has an important meeting this late at night? Just get a manager here or I'll-"

"You will do nothing but sit back down and watch your tone before I have the pleasure of forcing you to do so," a voice came from behind them.

Beca turned to see a woman walking up to them. Her eyes widened. She had to be almost six feet tall with amazing muscle tone dressed all in black. In short she looked as intimidating as hell. Her thick German accent definitely didn't hurt the intimidation factor either. Beca stepped back a little bit.

"This isn't any of your business." The man glared at the new woman and then looked back at Beca. He opened his mouth to say something else, but didn't get that far.

"Oh, I think you made it my business when you yelled loud enough for the whole restaurant to hear and acted in a threatening manner towards this woman. She is only trying to do her job and has offered you a great many options. Why you are being completely unreasonable and not taking any of those options is beyond me. Perhaps it is you who is the unintelligent one in this equation. Or perhaps you've just regressed to being a small child and throwing a fit every time you do not get your way. Either way, it is of no matter to me. I'm not the one making a fool of myself in public." She cocked an eyebrow and gave the man a scathing look.

The man just spluttered for a moment before saying, "You're a bitch."

"Oh, please. Is that all you've got to say? I've had better insults from a loaf of bread." She laughed.

"Bread, what the fuck bitch, bread doesn't even insult people."

"I do believe that was the point, ja?"

The man tapped his son on the shoulder and he got out of the way real quick. Oh god, if this turned into some sort of fucking fight she was going to have to stay here even longer and that was going to suck balls on top of everything else. Not that she didn't appreciate the woman sticking up for her and everything, but still. Having to deal with cops wasn't on her to do list.

"Now, you listen here. You should know where the fuck to stick your nose like a real woman. But then again, you look more like a man than anything in that stupid get up of yours."

Everyone within hearing distance drew in a sharp breath. Holy shit. That was so not the right way to go.

The woman drew herself up to her full height, which was a few inches taller than the man in front of her. She literally loomed over him with a deadly glint in her eyes.

"Oh, I am not a woman am I? And you are such an expert on the subject to be able to tell. I do not know what you are, but you are not a man, not a human being. They would know to be decent to a woman who is only doing her job. But you...you." She looked him over carefully, eyes like sharp blades. "No, you are nothing more than the slime on the ground. What sort of example are you setting for your family? You are telling your son that it is okay to mistreat women because he believes he has been wronged in some very, very slight way. You are telling your daughter that is to be expected if she is not perfect. You're telling her that she has to look a certain way to be a woman. Are these really the messages you want to be sending?" Her voice was rising steadily, but never broke into a shout. It was icy, deadly, and scary as fuck.

Beca took a step back. Holy shit. She was dragging that guy to hell and back with every word out of her mouth. It was damn impressive.

"Perhaps if you thought even just for a second before opening your mouth you would think of these things, but you do not. I stick my nose wherever I please because _things_ like you need to be put in their place, because people like your waitress cannot defend themselves from without getting fired. Your definition of lady-like is antiquated and I will not stand for it, nor for anything you have said tonight. Ich kann Menschen wie dich einfach nicht ausstehen. Du glaubst du weißt alles, aber in Wirklichkeit bist du genauso ignorant wie alle anderen. Verschwinde." The last few sentences were said in a voice so severe the man in front of the woman paled significantly. He stepped back and turned towards his family. (I cannot stand people like you. You think you know everything but really you are the most ignorant of all. Get out.)

"Come on, obviously this restaurant is not meant for honest people. It's for tramps and dyke bitches like this." He looked at Mina once more and then turned for the door.

Another member of the woman's party, all dressed in the same black clothes, lunged after him upon hearing his derogatory terms, but Stacie grabbed her around the waist and held her back.

"Ah yes, the cowards way out! How like you!" The woman shouted after him, but did not move from her place as the rest of his family filed past, eyes on the floor.

Beca looked at the table of half-finished food. Fuck. They hadn't paid, and it sure as hell wasn't worth it to go after that guy and make him. She groaned. Great. That would come right out of her paycheck. Fuck, rent was going to be an even tighter squeeze than normal.

The woman walked up to her. "Are you alright, tiny mouse?"

Beca looked up at her. "Tiny mouse? What?"

"Oh, you are just small, like a mouse. I am sorry if you do not like it. I have nothing else to call you."

"Beca, my name is Beca." Wow. This woman was fucking stunning up close. Wow. Just. Ok, so maybe this night was looking up at least a little bit.

"Pleased to meet you, though not under these circumstances. My name is Mina." She smiled and Beca's world shattered just a little bit in a very good way.

"That's a nice name," she said, sounding just a little breathless. "It fits your beautiful face." Oh, ok, that wasn't supposed to come out.

Mina laughed. "Thank you, mouse."

"You're welcome, gorgeous."

"Gorgeous, mmm? I could get used to that." Mina glanced back at Beca. "They didn't pay their bill. It will come out of your pay, yes?"

Beca nodded. "Yeah, but it's no big deal."

"No, it is. I will pay their bill for them, rude idiots that they were. You do not deserve to pay the price for having them seated in your section." She pulled out a wallet and handed Beca a card.

Beca stared at her hand for a long second, much longer than it should have taken her to take the card, but she was sort of frozen. When she finally did manage to take it a blush was covering her face. Idiot.

"You really don't have to." Beca looked down at the card and then up at Mina again.

"Oh, but for a beautiful mouse like you, I do." A slow, flirty smile made it's way onto Mina's face.

Beca's heart sped up. Oh. So this day was totally looking up right now. Wow.

"Alright, if you insist. I'll be right back."

Mina nodded. "I will be over with my friends when you are done. I need to check that Aren is all right. She does not like the use of language like that. It is a good thing the other server grabbed her or there would have been an… issue."

Beca snorted. "Yeah, Stacie has quick reflexes around people she thinks are hot."

"And you, do you have fast reflexes around people you find attractive?"

"Uh, um, no?"

Mina laughed. "I see. Go run the card, mouse." She turned and walked back to her friends, going up to a girl with long, dark hair and starting to speak with her.

Beca shook herself and went to the register, running the card for the bill that the idiots had left. She took off the guy's entree and took half off the rest. If her manager asked she would just say that she'd had problems with the guy and that was how she resolved them. Stacie would cover for her, totally.

She walked back out onto the floor and to Mina's party. She looked around the restaurant. They were the only ones left, thank god.

Beca approached Mina, who was still talking to the dark haired one who had lunged after the guy. "Here you go." Beca handed back the card, almost dropping it in the process. Clumsy as fuck of course she had to be in front of a hot woman. Just great.

"Thank you, Beca." God, even the way she said her name was hot. And definitely something she could get used to hearing. In bed. Wait, no, Beca, control your thoughts. Bad mouse!

"Yeah, I went ahead and took off asshole's meal and gave you half off so it's like twenty bucks. You didn't deserve to pay full price for that shit either."

Mina smiled. "Danke." She pocketed the card. "You still have to clean up for the night, ja?"

Beca nodded. "Yeah, refill the salt shakers and whatever the fuck else."

"It would go faster with seventeen sets of hands instead of two, wouldn't it?"

Beca looked at her. "You've already paid for a dumbass who walked out on his bill. You don't have to stay and help clean up too. You should be able to go home and get some sleep at some point tonight."

"So should you." She turned to her group of friends. "DSM!"

They all turned toward her immediately and shouted, "Ja!" back.

"We will help these two clean up for the night. Do whatever they direct you to and quickly, bitte."

They all stood up and grabbed up their plates from the table and looked to the two servers.

Stacie stepped forward, shooting a smile at the girl she'd kept from attacking the dickwad from earlier. "Right this way ladies and gents."

They all walked off together towards the back of the house leaving Mina and Beca alone.

"Now, where do they keep the cleaning rags. I will clean the tables while you refill the salt shakers, you said?"

Beca nodded. "Um, the rag and the cleaning bottle are up by the hostess's station."

And like that Mina was off towards the front of the restaurant. "Do just the tables that were just used need cleaned off or do all of them?"

"Just the ones that were used. The rest should have already been cleaned."

"Okay."

The rest of the group appeared again and Stacie set them to different tasks, one group vacuuming, one grabbing the salt and pepper shakers from the tables and filling them, and one grabbing sugar and artificial sweetener packets and filling little containers up. A few people followed behind Mina to dry the tables. Andy, the dish boy who worked in the back, was clearly more than a bit distracted by Stacie's new friend, whose name was Aren apparently, because she kept flouncing in and out of the stock room as needed. Beca and Stacie packed up the last of the night's profits and receipts and put them in the lockbox in the manager's office. And instead of an hour for clean up, it took them all of ten minutes.

Beca looked at Stacie and smiled as DSM gathered back in the middle of the restaurant. Everything looked spotless. It was great. And she would finally get to get off her feet soon. Bless everything in the world.

Mina came up to them with Aren at her side. "Are we all done, girls?" She asked.

They both nodded. "Thanks," Beca said. "That was the fastest clean up ever."

"No problem for you, mouse." Mina smiled. She turned to her group. "Go load up in the cars. We will be out shortly."

They all nodded and headed from the room.

Stacie looked at Beca. "I'm going to go tell Amy that we're all ready to head out. She'll lock up the rest of the way."

Beca nodded. "Ok, cool."

She watched as Aren trailed after Stacie like a little puppy. Maybe she wasn't the only one who had met a hot girl tonight. Well, good.

Mina stepped closer to her. "I am glad to have made your night at least a bit better after that."

Beca swallowed hard. Oh, up close the woman smelled like cinnamon. That should be a crime.

"You made it more than a little bit better. You're like sunshine on a cloudy day…. or y'know, something..." Ugh, could she get any more cliche? Probably.

"Well, that's an interesting compliment." Mina smiled and stepped just a bit closer. She slipped Beca's order pad from her apron along with a pen. She opened it and scribbled something down. "Here," she said, handing it back to Beca. "Perhaps the little mouse will call me sometime?"

Beca looked down at the number scrawled in neat handwriting on one of her order sheets and just nodded. Oh holy shit.

"Good."

Aren appeared from the back with a big smile on her face. "Ready to go?" She asked Mina.

Mina looked at the still stunned Beca. "Ja, I believe so. Goodbye, little mouse."

Beca blinked again for a few long seconds. She didn't know when that was all she had become capable of, but it was probably sometime after Mina stood up for her. She probably should fix that at some point.

But then she was moving quickly, daring forward and catching the door. "Mina!" she called.

Mina turned around and cocked an eyebrow. "What?"

Beca propped the door open and ran across the parking lot. "I'm thanking you properly." She stood up on her tip toes and kissed Mina lightly on the corner of her mouth. Mina pulled back and looked at Beca skeptically.

"That was a proper thank you?" And then she was leaning down and kissing Beca full on the mouth.

Beca almost melted on the spot. Holy fuck. Literally, holy hell. Where the fuck had she been transported to, because it had to be heaven.

A second later Mina pulled back again. " _That_ is a proper thank you."

"I, uh, yeah, um."

Mina laughed. "Now you have to text me, Beca. I'm not going to be able to live without kissing you for long."

"I-I will." Beca managed to stutter out.

"Good, good. Then I will see you later, ja?"

"Definitely."

Beca watched as Mina walked to the nearest car and slipped into the driver's side and then sped off a second later. Wow.

She walked back into the restaurant and grabbed her stuff. She waved goodbye to Stacie with a dazed expression on her face. Stacie shot her a knowing look and thumbs up. Beca would have to deal with her teasing later but it was so worth it. Especially since she was sure the other German girl's stupid grin had something to do with Stacie.

As she climbed into her car, she really only had one thought, "Thank god for asshole white men and hot German saviors." And then she drove home with a huge smile on her face.


End file.
